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David Koloane / Twenty Ten and Other Things

About

29 APRIL -27 MAY 2010.

Goodman Gallery Cape proudly presents a solo exhibition of new and recent drawings and prints by David Koloane. The exhibition foregrounds Koloane’s decades-long exploration of the bustle and frictions of the inner city of Johannesburg, where Koloane has his studio. In his work, Koloane negotiates actual and symbolic tensions between the vertical planes of high-rise buildings and the low pulse of crowd-filled streets, viewed through hazy early morning or late afternoon smog. The moods and shifts in the city’s light and landscape are represented in Koloane’s gestural marks and his colourful but earthy palette. This work lends credence to Ivor Powell’s observation that Koloane’s ‘expressive and representational realisation makes the canvas into a site of subliminally emotive suggestion as much as a representational equivalent of observed reality.’

A new body of work included on the exhibition playfully engages with the soccer mania sweeping the country. Koloane has created a series of large-scale charcoal and pastel drawings depicting a player in action – legs flailing in strong circular movements. Reminiscent of mandalas, the movement poetically captures the dynamics of the beautiful game.

David Koloane is one of the important South African artists of recent decades. His contribution to the visual arts spans criticism, curation, developmental interests and a prolific career as a practitioner. A founding member of the Bag Factory (Fordsburg Artists’ Studios) in Johannesburg, Koloane was instrumental in establishing a presence in southern Africa for the Triangle Trust, an international network of artists and arts organisations. He has exhibited widely and his work is represented in major collections including Iziko South African National Gallery, the Johannesburg Art Gallery, Wits Art Galleries as well as the Botswana National Museum.